


Looking Through His Eyes

by KeeperofSeeds



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Bodhi Rook Needs a Hug, Canon Universe, Courage, Developing Friendships, Drinking, Drinking to Cope, During Canon, Eadu, Ficlet, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Not Beta Read, POV Bodhi Rook, Team Bonding, Wordcount: 100-2.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-13
Updated: 2017-04-13
Packaged: 2018-10-14 07:56:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,992
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10532193
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KeeperofSeeds/pseuds/KeeperofSeeds
Summary: Bodhi looks for hints of Galen in her.





	

 Bodhi can't stop shaking, even once they've reached the Rebel base and are standing at the base of a large pyramid shaped structure, surrounded by crowds of people. They've made it. He's done it. He's defected. He rocks up on his toes and back to his heels, just taking in the solid ground beneath them. Breathes in deep, takes in the heavy smell of the planet's overgrown vegetation mixed in with the more familiar fumes from the ships coming and going.

 

It feels more real now than when he'd been marched through the Jedha desert, or the blur of time spent at Saw Gerra's base.

 

 _They have the message_. Galen's message! Or well, Jyn has it. She and Saw were the only ones to see it apparently. 

 

Bodhi doesn't think Galen would mind his daughter as an unexpected middle man delivering his message. 

 

Galen had talked about her occasionally. Just small things, innocent comments that gave nothing of importance away to an outsider observer, but things that were obviously important to Galen. He'd mentioned her favorite fruit once during a supply delivery, cracked a joke about her orienteering skills once after Bodhi had stammered through an apology about getting lost in the station and ending up sleeping on a sofa in the community room. Another time he'd roped Bodhi into toasting to her Life Day. 

 

It's strange to look at someone you've just met and feel like you already know them.

 

He glances at Jyn out of the corner of his eye. While Cassian had gone to report in, she'd separated from their little group and somehow found a place to sit and a take steady sips from a canteen. He studies the way she sits, the furrow of her brow, the way she holds her cup.

 

They both share the same long fingers he notices, though Jyn's have more scars. Her ring finger looks like it must have been broken at some point and not properly set with the way it curls strangely close to her pinky finger, as if she can't extend it fully. He'd first noticed the scars when she'd brushed him off the first time he'd tried to talk to her on the shuttle, to ask about her father. He won't hold it against her. The mission had gone sideways so quickly, and they'll all will need time to process it. Though it seems unlikely they will be granted this, if the way people are rushing about is any indication. He steps back quickly to avoid a small droid zooming past, hugs closer to the wall, and glances back at Jyn again.

 

She wears grief the same way Galen did: weighing down on the set of her shoulders, making her seem to curl into herself. She sits wedged against the wall, away from the hustle and bustle of the command center, something Galen hadn't often been allowed as head scientist of the station. 

 

Bodhi had seen it only once. He'd been stranded at the station overnight after the storms had damaged his ship. It wasn't an unusual situation. Eadu's storms made a mockery of schedules more often than not. Normally he relished the chance to stretch out on a real bed versus the cot in his ship. That night though he'd been unable to slip into sleep, mind still buzzing after navigating the storm. He felt like he'd vibrate right out of his skin if he'd laid in the dark any longer. He'd gotten back up and drifted around the station until he ended up sitting at thebar slash common area for the researchers, trying not to stand out too much with his dusty  fatigues in the mostly empty room when Galen had caught his eye and beckoned him over to his table in the corner with a lazy wave of his hand.

 

He'd been sitting with a half finished bottle of something that smelled like it was worth Bodhi's entire paycheck. He'd poured another slug of the alcohol and taken a deep swallow. Then he pushed the half empty glass towards Bodhi and nodded at the empty chair across from him.

 

"Join me, Bodhi," he'd said."It's terrible to drink alone."

 

Bodhi sat and picked up the drink. His eyes watered a bit at the fumes, but he takes a sip anyway, only coughing once as the burn trails down his throat.

 

 "Are we drinking because of anything in particular?" he'd asked as he sat down, and Galen sighed,seeming to deflate.

"My daughter." He'd answered."It's her Life day today. Or…I hope it is." He paused, lips pressed together, a pained look crossing his face. "I don't know if she's alive or dead."

 

Oh. Galen curled forward in his seat, as if a great weight was pressing him down into himself. Bodhi doesn't know what to say. He reaches out and rests a hand on Galen's, who smiled a thin, tired smile and pats his other hand on top of Bodhi's. Then he draws in a deep breath, straightening.

 

"Come now," he'd said."I think I've had enough wallowing for the evening. Let me get another glass, and you can tell me about your travels. I could use the distraction."He paused, before quietly admitting, "My wife was always more of a traveler than I was, and I fear I'm beginning to forget what worlds without constant rain look like."

 

The night went on from there. Bodhi had talked until he felt hoarse, trying to think of amusing stories to share, talking about the glimpses of planets he seen from space ports, but always somehow ending up back at stories of Jedha and the deserts he grew up near. Galen's had smiled and relaxed, his face flushing as he'd poured them both more drinks, encouraging Bodhi to keep up. He was a maudlin drunk, which had surprised Bodhi. He'd sighed and laughed in all the right places in Bodhi's stories, reaching over again and again to try and pour another shot of the alcohol into the cup he'd found for Bodhi, even though Bodhi had yet to drain the glass.  
 He had begun listing sideways the longer the night went on, until Bodhi finally called an end  to the night and decided to help the man to his room.

 

He'd grabbed Galen and pulled him sideways until one arm was draped across his shoulders, while Galen snatched out a hand to bring the bottle of left over alcohol with them. He stood straighter than Bodhi expected, considering how many glasses he'd thrown back, but Bodhi struggled under the man's weight as he sagged to the left, his feet not quite able to keep to their course. Their zigzag pattern down the corridor was observed only by one lone security guard who'd nodded as Galen greeted him by name, a little louder than necessary before they turned a corner and reached the  room Galen had waved a hand at. Bodhi had taken the man's shoes off, and helped him to lay in the bed. He'd been debating whether it was worth it to try and pull  the top blanket down when long fingers reached up and patted at his cheek."You're a good man Bodhi."

 

He flinches back to the present when a similar hand to the one he remembered was thrust towards him. He follows the hand up to meet Jyn's face.

 

"Here," she says, shaking the half empty cup so the liquid inside sloshes. "Take it. You look like you need it more than I do."

Bodhi took a sip and coughed in surprise, looking closer at the cup and then up at Jyn, eyebrow raised in a silent question.

 

"Nicked it from the pilots' stash," she answered, cocking her head over her shoulder in the vague direction of the hanger. "It was half disguised in a jug that usually was for caf.

 

"Huh." Bodhi said and took another, bigger glup. "Some things don't change I guess." She gave him her own questioning look. "Plenty of Imperial cargo pilots have a stash hidden in the open too." He coughed again, savoring the burn the flowed down his throat and settled in his stomach. "I never really developed a taste for the stuff." He wondered how much it would take to burn the memories of the explosions on Eadu out of his mind. To burn away the leftover feel of tentacles rummaging around in his mind, or the feel of the planet itself shaking apart all around him as he fled Jedha with a group of strangers.

 

"Sit down before you fall down."She tugs at his pant leg until he followed it down, and then she reached out for the cup. She took a short gulp and continued, "it doesn't really matter if you have a taste for it."

 

"I suppose not," Bodhi agreed. Liquid courage, he'd heard people say. Maybe Jyn had the right idea in that case. He could use some more courage, the prospect of being interviewed by the Alliance at least twice today already had his nerves on edge. The crowds all around them weren't helping either. He pulled his feet in closer to his body, making himself smaller.

 

Jyn glanced back up from the cup as a random person who looked like they might be a Senatorial aide, in simple clothes that were probably worth as much as one of the inbound shuttles, ran a bit too close by them and frowned. Without thinking, Bodhi said, "That's the same look Galen used to get."

 

"What?" Jyn's eyebrows rose, and Bodhi flushed as she turned her full attention to him. He looked away, and picked at the seam of his trousers to avoid her eyes.

 

"When he had a plan, but one of the other officers would rush in and mess him up in the middle of writing down something, throw him off his train of thought."

 

Jyn grimaced. Bodhi internally berated himself. She'd only just lost him yesterday, she was probably still processing everything. Of course she wouldn't want to be reminded of how she'd never be able to learn about how he'd changed. He fumbled for a moment over what to say before settling on an apology.

 

"I'm sorry about Galen...I liked him." he said quietly.

 

Jyn nodded, accepting the platitude.

 

Before he could say anything more Cassian ducked out of a doorway and made his way quickly toward them. He looked better now than he had on the journey here, Bodhi thought. He stood straighter, gave off a more militant air.

 

Jyn slides the cup between them, and raises her chin as he stops, looking down at them.

 

"They're almost ready for you two," he says. "The Council is setting up now." He jerks his head towards Jyn. " I'll take you to them." To Bodhi he says, "Someone will come for you, after they finish talking to the Guardians."

 

Bodhi nods as Jyn stands up with a wince, stiff joints popping at the movement.

 

 Jyn follows Cassian through the crowds flowing into the base.  As Bodhi watches her walk away, he sees another hint of Galen in the stubborn clench of her jaw and feels better than he has all morning. She has some sort of plan. He only hopes it will be enough. One voice speaking out against the darkness could make all the difference…another thing he'd learned from Galen in the end. Even one person can make a difference.

 

 He thinks it will take time to learn to see Jyn, and the Alliance, through his own eyes, and not through Galen's, but then again, maybe seeing the world through Galen's eyes wasn't such a bad thing. Galen had been the one to give him hope, to show him that he had a chance to do better.

 

He grabs the cup Jyn left behind and raises it up slightly in a silent toast before draining it.

 

_Thank you Galen. For showing me the way._

**Author's Note:**

>  _There will be time on this journey_  
>  All you'll see is darkness  
> Out there somewhere daylight finds you  
> If you keep believing
> 
> _So don't run, don't hide_  
>  It will be all right  
> You'll see, Trust me  
> I'll be there watching over you
> 
>  **clicky** : [take a look through my eyes](https://youtu.be/hQw3AoFpG7Y)


End file.
